Valiant Communications Limited announced the receipt of an order for its "beyond the firewall" Cyber Security Defence strategy solutions for deployment in the network of the Oil & Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), a Government of India Enterprise. ONGC is the largest crude oil and natural gas company in India. Since ONGC forms a part of the Critical Information Infrastructure (CII) in India, it is of utmost importance that its digital asset base is protected from cyber threats, network intrusions and ransomware attacks.

The selected products from Valiant's Cyber Security Defence strategy solutions shall include equipment that is designed and based on the guidelines of the Government of India on cyber security. The need to detect and actupon intrusions that result from firewall breaches, or from the presence of trojans which can be planted or inadvertently introduced from within, assist in detecting unlawful and unwarranted activities that may already be taking place within the network, which could potentially open holes for backdoor entry from within the existing firewalls, resulting in a cyberattack or ransomware attacks. The selected products also assist in creating "hard" isolation zones and create secure perimeters within the IT and OT Systems, in case of cyberattacks or hostile network intrusions are detected.

The offered solution not only provides seamless scalability, but it is also infrastructure neutral and transparent to existing firewalls, networks and network applications. The use of this solution becomes critical to any organization, by providing "Early Warning and Response Systems" behind the firewalls detection of cyber security incidents and helping mitigation of such cyber threats, safeguarding IT systems using early cyberattack warning and intrusion detection algorithms with suitable audiovisual alerting mechanisms by detecting cyberattacks on SCADA and ICS systems and it plays an important role of strengthening the cyber security systems of an organization. The need for implementing an effective cyber security and counterdefence strategy becomes an utmost important aspect of protecting critical infrastructure such as the Power Transmission and Distribution Networks, Oil & Gas assets, including its Onshore and Offshore Operations, as well other distributed infrastructure to ensure resilience, reliability and security of operations.

Firewalls alone cannot form the centrepiece of the cybersecurity strategy as firewall can be breached not only from outside but (more often) from the inside by trojans, viruses or malware which may have been planted or inadvertently introduced these from within, in the most vulnerable parts of the network. The artificial, soft airgap created between IT and OT Systems by deploying only firewalls between any IT and OT System can be easily circumvented by any insider or any outsider, by inadvertently planting or activating a dormant trojan inside the network, behind the firewall. In short, having only firewalls as a tool to address a cybersecurity defence strategy remains a myth, unless "hard" isolation zones and secure perimeters within the IT and OT Systems can be automatically created, in case cyberattacks or hostile network intrusions are detected.